A blog about digital rhetoric that asks the burning questions about electronic bureaucracy and institutional subversion on the Internet.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Talk to Me Baby

NPR's story, "Obama Teams Spread Out To Tout Plans," discusses how the Obama campaign's hybrid of web-based and door-to-door persuasion is being retasked for defending the President's economic agenda. However, critics are questioning how well BarackObama.com's "Organizing for America" initiative is functioning now that the focus is petition-signing and constituent-calling. Station reporters discovered that many were "rusty" or having difficulty sticking to their talking points in getting Obama voters to go back online. Obama's website is also being used for other volunteer efforts, such as getting aid to flood victims in the northern midwest via links to a Red Cross website.

Not all candidate-named websites are maintained, of course, even if the site contributed to an election win and a stint in the presidency. It is worthy of note that GeorgeWBush.com now simply forwards to the Republican National Committee. And the awkwardly named cg96.org, which was the hub of the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign now goes nowhere at all. (Screen shots still visible here.)